


Alliances Forged

by cordeliadelayne



Series: Allies [2]
Category: Primeval
Genre: Awkwardness, Gen, Getting to Know Each Other, Making Friends, Pre-Series, Sense of Foreboding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-25
Updated: 2016-04-25
Packaged: 2018-06-04 08:57:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6651340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stephen temporarily moves in with the Cutter’s.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alliances Forged

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for the pre-series challenge at primeval_denial and posted to Livejournal in 2008.

Stephen sensed her before he saw her. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled as he sat scouring the flats for rent section in the paper whilst lounging on Cutter’s sofa. He quieted his breathing and tensed his muscles, then slowly looked up. He marginally relaxed when he saw Helen Cutter’s features reflected in the metal sculpture directly across from him. The fact that Helen smiled in response proved that he’d passed this test.

“Flat hunting?” she asked, leaning over the back of the sofa and Stephen’s shoulder. He gave a tentative smile before returning his gaze to his search and away from her ample breasts, barely restrained by her shirt.

“Yes. Cutt…Nick’s upstairs.”

Helen stayed where she was a beat too long before patting him on the shoulder and moving away. “I’ll go talk to him, then.”

He heard her stride up the stairs and then muffled conversation as one of them shut the bedroom door. He wondered if Cutter had told Helen he’d be staying, or whether he was doing it now.

The squeaking of bed springs suggested otherwise.

Stephen had been waiting for Cutter to come down so they could order a pizza – his offer of cooking not lasting the half hour drive from the university. All Stephen’s important possessions including his shoes were in the spare room, right next to Cutter’s bedroom on a corridor full of loose floorboards. He’d never get up there without them hearing him. But he couldn’t really leave either; his outfit of jeans, black t-shirt and bare feet was not going to get him very far.

It didn’t surprise him that Helen was being extremely vocal but it didn’t help his embarrassment. He should have considered this would happen before he accepted Cutter’s hospitality, but it was too late now.

He padded softly into the kitchen where Helen’s cries and Cutter’s grunts were mercifully muffled and put the kettle on. When they came back down he just wouldn’t react at all. His stomach rumbled and he hoped they finished sooner rather than later - he was starving.

Half a mug of tea later Helen walked into the kitchen in one of Cutter’s shirts, and nothing else. Stephen averted his eyes and stared at his drink, narrowly missing Helen’s smirk.

“He’s in here,” she called behind her shoulder. She opened up the fridge and was pulling out a carton of orange juice when her husband walked into the room. Barefoot like the others he was wearing loose fitting jogging bottoms and a t-shirt that had clearly seen better days, his hair sticking up in all directions.

“There you are,” Cutter said. “Helen and I were just talking about sharing you.”

Stephen spat tea all over the kitchen table.

“Are you all right?” Cutter asked.

“Yes, yes, yes, fine. Wrong hole,” he replied, waving Cutter off. He grabbed the kitchen towel and began to wipe down the table, and himself. Great impression he was making.

Cutter watched in some bemusement as Stephen sat back down, only to have to move again as Helen reached around him to open a cupboard.

“I thought we’d have pizza tonight,” Cutter told her.

“Not for me,” she replied, finally settling on an apple that she heartily bit into. “I’m not stopping.” She planted a kiss on Cutter’s cheek as she passed. “Give you a chance to tell Stephen about our idea.” And then she was gone.

As Cutter phoned through their order Stephen got out the plates and glasses, then poured the beer Cutter handed him. He took a long drink and then sat opposite his employer.

“So…idea?” he asked warily.

“Right,” Cutter replied. “Helen and I…well, Helen really, thought you might be interested in earning some extra money. I know assistant’s salaries aren’t that great, but hopefully we can find enough entertaining things for you to do. It’d be one on one mostly, though sometimes the both of us.” Stephen blushed bright red. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Stephen just nodded, the words caught in his throat. Jut what had he got himself into?

“You’ll be well paid for the trouble, of course, and it might even lead to other things. So, what do you say?” Cutter leaned back and smiled, feeling very satisfied. He couldn’t understand why Stephen wasn’t being equally enthusiastic.

Stephen meanwhile was deciding how best to respond. “You haven’t actually said what I’d be doing.”

“Oh, didn’t I?” Cutter seemed genuinely puzzled. “Helen needs help organising her research, so we though that would make a good side project for you. And she’ll probably be able to get you on her graduate course too, if you’re interested?” The doorbell rang, saving Stephen from responding just yet.

As Cutter went to pay, refusing Stephen’s offer of going halves, Stephen knew he only had a moment to decide what to do. It was a no brainer, really. Helen Cutter was renowned for only picking a handful of students for her graduate course and she and Nick were among the leading minds of their generation. How could he possibly turn them down?

“So, what do you think?” Cutter asked as he re-entered the room, pizza box in his hands.

“I think it sounds great. Thank you. And Helen. I certainly didn’t expect all this.”

“It’s our pleasure. I was just like you once, striking out on my own. I think the three of us will make a good team.”

It felt strange, having such an immediate connection with the both of them; Stephen was usually far more reticent about new friendships. But as he helped himself to a slice of pizza he acknowledged that there was something about the pair of them that quickly dissolved his usual barriers and he couldn’t help feeling that Cutter was right. Whatever might happen in the future, they were in it together.


End file.
